Front Cover: "The
Cello Player" by Azerbaijani painter, Akbar Behkalam from
Tabriz who lives in Berlin now. The artist's wife, a German musician-physician
was the inspiration for this painting. According to Behkalam,
she becomes so engrossed while playing music that she almost
embraces the instrument. "That's what I've tried to convey
in this painting," he told us. See the article on page 14.

Back Cover: Memorial sculpture in Baku commemorating
the spy Richard Zorge who was born in Baku and informed the Soviet
Union that the Germans intended to attack on June 21, 1941. Zorge
later worked in Japan where he was executed when they discovered
that he was spying. Sculpture is on Samad Vurgun Street. Design
Pirouz Khanlou, Photo: Oleg Litvin.

Azerbaijan has world-class
musicians and artists.
But what happens when the arts are no longer supported by a centralized
government? Some of Azerbaijan's most famous painters and musicians
share their viewpoints about what it's like to try to survive
during this interim. Also check out the exclusive article by
Thor
Heyerdahl, the
great Norwegian scholar and voyager, who though now in his 80s,
is still trying to trace the sea routes back to the earliest
beginnings of man. Could Scandinavians be historically and genetically
linked to Azerbaijanis? Heyerdahl thinks so.